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BBC promises ‘biggest education offer’

The BBC will deliver the “biggest education offer in its history” during the UK’s latest national Covid-19 lockdown, with significant airtime to be devoted to educational programming on BBC2 and CBBC.

Tim Davie

As UK schools shift to remote learning, the move will deliver extra educational content to children, teachers and parents via BBC2, CBBC, BBC Red Button, the BBC iPlayer and elsewhere online.

This will ensure all children can access curriculum-based learning, even if they don’t have access to the internet, the UK pubcaster said.

From Monday January 11, CBBC will provide a three-hour block of primary school programming each weekday, including BBC Live Lessons and BBC Bitesize Daily.

This will sit alongside other educational programming such as Our School, Celebrity Supply Teacher, Horrible Histories, Art Ninja and Operation Ouch.

BBC2, meanwhile, will cater for secondary students with programming to support the GCSE curriculum, with at least two hours of content every weekday.

Content will be built around Bitesize Daily secondary shows, complemented by Shakespeare and classic drama adaptations alongside science, history and factual titles from the BBC’s factual programming units.

Bitesize Daily primary and secondary will also air every day on BBC Red Button as well as episodes being available on demand on BBC iPlayer.

Oliver Dowden

Tim Davie, director general of the BBC, said: “Ensuring children across the UK have the opportunity to continue to follow the appropriate core parts of their nation’s school curriculum has been a key priority for the BBC throughout this past year. Education is absolutely vital – the BBC is here to play its part and I’m delighted that we have been able to bring this to audiences so swiftly.”

Oliver Dowden, secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, added: “The BBC has helped the nation through some of the toughest moments of the last century, and for the next few weeks it will help our children learn whilst we stay home, protect the NHS [National Health Service] and save lives. This will be a lifeline to parents and I welcome the BBC playing its part.”

Prior to the pandemic, the BBC was under mounting pressure from the country’s Conservative government, with reports suggesting it was looking to abolish the licence fee altogether and replace it with a voluntary subscription.

However, since then the value of public service broadcasting has been recognised, with UK media regulator Ofcom finding over last summer that the crisis has reinforced the importance of PSBs as trusted providers of news and information.

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